Crimson Bound

Rachelle Brinon has been trained by her aunt to serve as a woodwife, whose responsibility it is to protect the village from the dark magic of the forest. While venturing into the forest, Rachelle is eventually tricked by a humanlike wolf creature, to whom she becomes bound to it by a thin crimson thread that only she can see. The connection is filled with passion and also gives her superhuman skills with the possibility of immortality. Now one of the king's assassins, Rachelle has many responsibilities and soon realizes that there are just as many dangers and threats within the kingdom as they are without. Loyalties are stretched when she's assigned the job of protecting Prince Armand, and a romantic triangle develops among Rachelle, the prince, and the captain of the bloodbounds.

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Based on the classic childhood tale, Little Red Riding Hood, Crimson Bound is about the fatal mistake Rachelle made when she was young. Two years ago, in her attempt to free the world from eternal darkness, Rachelle forgets her aunt’s teachings, and thus strays from the forest path. As a result of her reckless actions, she became bound to the evil within the forest that she hoped to defeat, turning her into a bloodhound. Now many years later, Rachelle works for the king by protecting the kingdom from deadly creatures as she wants to perform penance for her actions. When Rachelle is forced to guard Armand, the king’s son, she convinces him to help her find Joyeuse, a magical sword that may be the key to extinguish the eternal darkness forever. I absolutely adored this book. Unlike other books that are based upon fairy tales, Crimson Bound has its own unique twist.
- @Vaseline of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

red_pony_115
Oct 23, 2016

i find this book strange and funny. it has a little twist form the way most people would think of the ending.

I finished this book last night (no i am NOT disclosing the time) in a frenzy i believe all crazy readers, such as myself, experince, the i-must-finish-this-book-or-i-will-die-lonely-and-heartbroken (yes. This is a mouthful deal with it) i loved Hodge's style of mixing old france with her own fantasy. There are 2 reasons i gave this book only 4 stars. Personally i thought the romance was a little abrupt ( anyone else get that feeling?) And because i am a real stickler about wrap-it-up endings. (You have no idea howmuch pain i was in at the end of The Young Elites) the end was happier than the end of the Dustlands trilogy (that is not a compliment) but i think it could have been leeeetle beeet happier. Her characters were very well built. I had a very love/hate relationship with Erec. I loved Rachelle (even though she did pull a Saba with Erec) and i completely loved Armand who struck me as a very Peeta like person. I will try and read Cruel Beauty, even though i am usually not a novel person.

Young Rachelle was trained to protect her people from the dark creatures that surround them, which she has always been determined to do. But she hasn't wanted to simply defend, she wants to boldly attack them. She learned the hard way that, unfortunately, sometimes the only effective way to attack the darkness is to embrace it. Now she clings desperately to her soul as one of those creatures, trying to hold off the darkness within herself while still protecting the people. And her work has moved her from a woodland village to the court of the king.

Hodge has meshed a nice array of elements into an enjoyable story. The mythology of looming darkness, with the Devourer at its heart and "forestborn"--which felt to me like a cross between vampires and woodland fairies--as its agents, and with legends of the ancient heroes who previously defeated it. A strong, complex, conflicted heroine. A not-awful love triangle (though I didn't feel it the way I would have liked). High society intrigue plus action plus horror. Writing that at times was lovely (and at times was repetitive). Intriguing secondary characters. I found myself quite caught up in all of it and recommend it to anyone intrigued by the sound of it.

Rosamund Hodge brings yet another tough and determined character into her books, Rachelle Brinon. Being a girl who was both apprenticed to protect the world from the great forest and had an adventure filled dreams, Rachelle stole my heart from the start.

Making one simple yet deadly mistake her world is turned upside down. Being marked by one of the forestborn Rachelle committed the worst of sins and became part of the great forest and the unseen Devourer. Now she is a bloodbound and a runaway from home regretting everything she ever did and devoting her life to saving others. But when the king orders her to protect his illegitimate son whom she hates, she has to step carefully as to not get herself or the prince killed but also to keep looking for the one thing that may as well save the lives of everyone she loves while being eternally attached to the one person that ruined her life. With the help of the prince and a plan far from realistic Rachelle sets off to find the sword, said to be lost forever, that will stop the devourer once again.

I found this book to be an exhilaratingly fast read, not being able to put it down once I started. And the story had not one but two twists. However at the end I was content to find out that everything went the way I had hoped.

The title crimson Bound is a very appropriate choice for this book because Rachelle is bound to the great forest and her forestborn in a much greater bond then she could ever have imagined. The book was written in a way that got me hooked from the start, and the author did a very good job in her choice of description of the great forest. It all had a very vivid image and I was more and more hooked as the story advanced.

A thrilling and heart-pumping read filled with adventure, love, and redemption all mashed into yet another beautifully illustrated book by Rosamund Hodge!

Good story, but somehow the romance falls flat, especially at the end. There's no sense of excitement or even particularly of desire. It's more like they just don't have anything better to do at the time.

Rosamund Hodge is a gem among the recently debuted YA authors. Her stories are so beautifully complex, so imaginative and bloody detailed that it seems almost an insult to say they are based on anything.